Why can't I find anything? Am I looking in the wrong places?

Question

I am trying to research my family, The Sill family, of OH and IL. I have some info from a family tree, but I can't find anything online, except something in the 1880 census that may not be my family. My grandfather's parents were Edward Sill and Georgia Dittmer. Edward was born in Hancock Co IL on Dec 18, 1903 and died in Loraine, IL. Edwards parents were John R Sill, born Jan 14, 1874, possibly born in Licking Co OH, and his mother was Mary Zinn. I think I've found John's parents in the 1880 Licking County, OH census, but their last name is presented as Sills. I've tried to find Licking County, OH records with the Sill name, and also in IL, with absolutely NO luck! I would love some suggestions on where to go from here!

Answer 1

My main suggestion would be to spell more tolerantly when you search the census indexes. Here is what I found.

1910; Census Place: St Albans, Hancock, Illinois; Roll: T624_290; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 23; Image: 521.

(Name, age, BP, relation)
John R Till, 36, Ohio, Head
Myrtle Till, 34, Ill, Wife
Edith Till, 8, Ill, dau
Edward Till, 6, Ill, son
Emma Till, 4, Ill, dau
Elijah Till, 3, Ill, son
Paul Till, 1, Ill, son

(There is a mark on all of them that says "Might be Sill").

1900 tells us how John and Mary Myrtle met

1900; Census Place: Keene, Adams, Illinois; Roll: T623 235; Page: 11A; Enumeration District: 111.

Elija D Zinn, 59, Virginia, head
Martha Zinn, 50, Illinois (As are the rest), Wife
Mirtle Zinn, 22 dau
Delia Zinn, 18 dau
Osa L Zinn, 16 dau
Eliza L Zinn, 13 son
Goldie M Zinn, 9 dau
John Sill, 26, Ohio, Servant
("Servant" here means hired man on the farm; he didn't answer the door in tie and tails, holding a silver platter, to announce "Mr Zinn will receive you in the Library, Madam". Look at how few sons Elijiah has left. He needed help.


I couldn't find a likely Zinn in the LDS 1880, so I looked for any Martha (ie, surname blank) b. 1850 (+/-) 5 living in a household where H of H was Elijah, and they popped right up:

Household:

Name Relation Marital Status Gender Race Age Birthplace Occupation Father's Birthplace Mother's Birthplace
Elijah D. ZIM Self M Male W 40 W.VA Farmer VA W.VA
Martha A. ZIM Wife M Female W 31 IL Keeps House KY KY
Ida M. ZIM Dau S Female W 16 IL W.VA VA
Samuel E. ZIM Son S Male W 12 IL Farmer W.VA VA
Evert E. ZIM Son S Male W 10 IL Farmer W.VA VA
Netty L. ZIM Dau S Female W 8 IL W.VA VA
Almond ZIM Son S Male W 2 IL W.VA VA
Mary M. ZIM Dau S Female W 1 IL W.VA VA
John H. WATSON Other S Male W 24 IA Laborer IL IL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source Information:
Census Place Keene, Adams, Illinois


Note they are in the same town as they are in 1900, and Mary Myrtle is Mary here, so I'm pretty sure this is them.


In 1870 Elijah is still in Keene:

(Name, residence, birth year, BP, race, gender)

Elijah Zinn Keene, Adams, IL abt 1840 West Virginia White Male
Mary Zinn Keene, Adams, IL abt 1842 Illinois White Female
Ida M Zinn Keene, Adams, IL abt 1863 Illinois White Female
Joseph Zinn Keene, Adams, IL abt 1867 Illinois White Male
Samuel Zinn Keene, Adams, IL abt 1868 Illinois White Male
Evertt Zinn Keene, Adams, IL abt 1870 Illinois White Male

It looks like either Mary, the wife here, died and he remarried, or she started using "Martha" and lied about her age in 1880 and 1900.


Elijah didn't come up in 1860, so I looked for any Zinn in Illinois b. 1840 (+/-) 5. He was hiding out under "Elizah"

1860; Census Place: St Albans, Hancock, Illinois; Roll: M653_184; Page: 383; Image: 128.

Samuel Zinn 54 abt 1806 Virginia Male
Mary A Zinn, 41 abt 1819 Virginia Female
Elizah Zinn, 20 abt 1840 Virginia Male
Sarah E Zinn, 16 abt 1844 Virginia Female
Eliza J Zinn, 14 abt 1846 Virginia Female
Martha Zinn, 12 abt 1848 Virginia Female
Virginia Zinn, 9 abt 1851 Illinois Female
Jerusha Zinn, 3 abt 1857 Illinois Female
Caroline Zinn 1 abt 1859 Illinois Female
==============================================

I wondered about Mary/Martha, and Illinois has

http://www.ilsos.gov/GenealogyMWeb/marrsrch.html

It has Elijah Zinn marrying
Martha Splicer 03/03/1875 in Adams Co. and
HICKMAN, MARY E 12/25/1862 in Hancock Co.


The census listings were from my subscription, except for the 1880. The Illinois marriage index is free.

Answer 2

There is a secret belief that census takers were told to deliberately misspell names on the census, just to see if later researchers have a good imagination. I did some digging in Licking co online and did locate a Jacob Sells who has a probate in that county. (that is from the Licking genealogical society web page). Another lead is that the usgenweb site for Licking DOES have the 1860 census online, and it isn't transcribed, its the images. Bad news is that it isn't indexed. Good news is that it is 'filed' by township, and you do have Hanover.
You have birth date for John R. but do you have death date and place? Did he live long enough that a death record would verify his parents to be John and Sarah? Has it been possible to track information regarding John R's siblings? Off hand, it seems that 1880 is the correct family, but using other sources would verify one way or the other.
Land records are excellent in terms of showing when a person came or moved... but those will be offline in most cases.
My hunch is that this may be a German family, and that Sill or Sills is possibly not the original. You might find records under phonetic variations.. Sells, Zill, Siel, or ?? When using the computer, it may be unlikely to hit those, but if looking at something such as an index where you can actually scan with your eyes.. it may jump out.
It wouldn't be real research, if you never had a brick wall to break down.

Answer 3

I have gone and researched some information in Licking County (I'm orginally from Franklin Co next door) and wasn't overly impressed with what they had at the time but that's been a few years ago. Was wondering if you looked for records under the name of "Sells" since that would be a common misspelling, depending on how the family said or spelled their name.

People have to remember that illiteracy was at a high back then and depending on the part of the country where people lived, things were spelled according to sound. I don't think the census takers did anything wrong deliberately so that goes to show the ignorance of people today and their lack of knowledge. My grandfather didn't know how to spell his middle name (Allen) so he spelled it Alon, the way it sounded to him. He misspelled other family names, too, which made it hard to find some death records but with perserverance, I did.

You might check http://www.familysearch.org/ where you might find information and it's free. Another good site is http://www.rootsweb.com/ which is also free. Enter the name(s) in the RootsWeb section, then click on World Connect and see what you can find.

If all else fails, then join http://www.ancestry.com/ and see if you can find what you need there. I believe you can still sign up for a monthly membership and can then cancel anytime you choose. They have continued to lock more and more information away from the public and can be rather expensive compared to what they were when I first joined about 6 years ago when it was $4.95 a month for locked items ~ but most were free to anyone who wanted to research. Rip off if you ask me.

Remember that all these sites contain errors and the information is only as good as what people entered ~ and many times they do not document their information and "assume" things before entering them. I've found mistakes in some of my lines so if you see something you know is wrong, you can do a "Post It" on Roots Web and make the information available to others that way.

Good luck and have fun and remember, not all lines have complete connections. We have one on my mother's side that we may never find the answer to and in some cases, there is no record of who the father is on some people (we have that problem on some, too). Move on to another line and go back later and work on the "lost relatives" and hope you can find an answer. If not, there are plenty of other lines to keep you busy *grin*

Good luck ~ hope you can find what these folks.

Answer 4

13 August 1850 USA Federal Census

Roll: M432_958; Page: 137; Image: 273
Eastern District, Marion County, Virginia

Samuel Zinn, 44 abt 1806 Virginia Male
Mary Ann, 34 abt 1816 Virginia Female
Elizabeth, 14 abt 1836 Virginia Female
William, 12 abt 1838 Virginia Male
Elijah, 8 abt 1842 Virginia Male
Sarah E, 6 abt 1844 Virginia Female
ElizaJane, 5 abt 1845 Virginia Female
Martha L, 2 abt 1848 Virginia Female

Answer 5

Well, the champion is www.ancestry.com. Some libraries have it and you can access ancestry.com for free. Even though there are a lot of records, the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of people are not in any of these records.
Try courthouse records for the places you mention; try the genealogical societies for the counties and states of these places. If you can go there, obtain cemetery records. And, keep checking older censuses.

Answer 6

Sometimes you hit a brick wall with your search. But don't give up hope. Go to this page http://boards.rootsweb.com/ It's part of Ancestry.com but it is free to post a question for help to search for a name and information. Just ask one name your having a problem with. And any information you have. A year. One name can give you a kick start in the right direction. It has helped for me. People will sometimes give you an image to of what they may find for you.

Answer 7

The problem with using the internet is you have to count on someone already submitting info on your family. If no one has then you won't find it.

try using the census You may be looking in the wrong County.
Try using the LDS center in your city.